10 Horror Movie Franchises That Forgot How To Be Scary

It's what you don't see - that was the seeming, unspoken ethos of Tobe Hooper's 1974 exploitation film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. And though so many audiences remain convinced they witnessed a man in a wheelchair sawed in two or a woman impaled on a meathook, a lot of it is entirely in the imagination, making the imagery all the more powerful.

But by the time he was approached for a sequel to his seminal work 12 years later, Hooper had other things on his mind. He had experimented with sci-fi horror with Lifeforce, remade Invaders From Mars and even adapted Stephen King. So Texas Chain Saw Massacre 2, he viewed as his time to let loose and go for broke. Cast Dennis Hopper and having him duel with chainsaws, amp up the gore to levels of absurd Ed Gein himself would be ashamed.

The film's poster even mocked the popular The Breakfast Club.

Leatherface: Texas Chain Saw III reigned it in a little, bringing it back to its roots but this time including the gore. The Next Generation muddied the waters, tried to incorporate some mythology that was quickly abandoned. Since, the franchise has gone the way of torture porn, each entry weaker - and gorier - than the last.